MUCH TO BE DONE

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21760, 17 April 1936, Page 8

MUCH TO BE DONE

AIR SERVICE TO NEW ZEALAND PAN-AMERICAN AIRWAYS PROJECT An indication of the preparation needed before Pan-American Airways will be able to run a service to New Zealand is conveyed in the answer given all questions by Mr H. Gatty, technical adviser to the company: 4 1 don’t know myself yet.” “Since the announcement that it was intended to extend the service to New Zealand, I have been asked to answer a hundred questions to which I myself don’t know the answer,” he remarked during an interview in Auckland. Business men were asking him how many aeroplanes a week there would be, how many passengers they would carry and what the fares would be. he continued. Those were questions which had not yet been considered. Basic data on routes, landing places, weather, and a host of other matters of fundamental importance were yet to be obtained. , , , .. Mr Gatty explained that, for the time being, he had done all he could do in New Zealand and was.sailing for Australia by the Aorangi on business for the Douglas Aircraft Company, for whom he is a representative. He had inspected and discussed several sites in the neighbourhood of Auckland, one of which would probably be selected by Pan-American Airways as an airport, but which one it would be he could not say. No Decision Possible Yet “No decision can be made until other data is collected,” stated Mr Gatty. "Not even the route that the PanAmerican clippers are to follow has yet been decided. Before even the route can be fixed, we must have a lot more information regarding possible refuelling stations, and prevailing weather conditions. Data on these subjects are being collected and correlated by the head office in San Francisco. My part in this work has been to collect information regarding weather and possible stations in New Zealand, and I have gone as far as I can for the present. My visit to Australia is not in any way connected with the PanAmerican service to New Zealand; it is purely on private business for the Douglas concern. Within the next month or so. however, I expect that the work of other investigators for the Pan-American line will be sufficiently advanced for me to start on some, constructive work. “The interest of the general public in aviation is often embarrassing,” remarked Mr Gatty. “Any other sort of concern can set up in business without being made a centre of public interest, but. presumably because aviation is still comparatively new, no airman, no aeroplane company, and no air service can do anything without the whole world wanting to know all about it. The public here, for example, want to know things that we ourselves do not yet know. The founding of a new air service cannot be gone at ’bull at a gate’ fashion. We have to collect and compare a vast amount of information regarding possible refuelling stations, weather conditions, distances, traffic, and such matters before we can pass an opinion even, let alone make a decision that involves the expenditure of thousands of pounds and the guaranteeing of safe transit to human beings and their goods.”